


Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

by rudehao



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: ChinaLine, JiHan, Jicheol, JunHao - Freeform, M/M, Seventeen - Freeform, meanie, verkwan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 09:06:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13854555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudehao/pseuds/rudehao
Summary: Soulmate au where the first words you speak to your soulmate are printed on your wrist when you turn 14summary: jun is an asshat, minghao loves him. minghao gets over him, jun loves him.





	Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

Junhui stared at the couple across from him on the bus. They couldn’t have been sat any closer, locked hip to hip on the bus seats, looking at each other lovingly and laughing together. Jun hated every second of it. He hated it not because they were acting all gross in public, or because he despised romance, he hated it because he’d been waiting his whole life to meet his soulmate and she hadn’t shown up. He’d tried everything he could do on his own. He’d go up to every girl he thought was pretty and say the line on his wrist, but he would always fumble on a word and it wouldn’t be the exact same. He took that as a sign that none of them were the one. He’d have to say it perfectly.

He’d heard stories from his friends. They’d met each other without even realizing that they were their soulmate. Ridiculous, Jun thinks, how could you not realize that the words you said have been on your wrist since you were 14?

He stared at the thin black lines along his wrist. The most bullshit introduction he has ever seen.

“That’s kind of creepy, you know.”

What kind of “hey soulmate” is that? How is he supposed to woo her if that’s the thing he starts with?

The bus stops. He gets off and starts to walk to his school. Hopefully Seungcheol isn’t there, he’s not in the mood for him gushing about Jihoon.

He sees his friends at the gate of the school, Seungcheol and Jihoon free, but doing some weird shit as always. Soonyoung is currently trying to climb the gate to get away from whatever Wonwoo is holding.

He wants to avoid it, but they’re his friends and he knows they’ll just track him down.

“Jun! Help me!” Soonyoung spots him approaching from the gate. 

“What the hell is going on?” Someone asks from behind him. Turning his head he sees Jeonghan and Jisoo walking up, as confused as Jun was.

“I have no idea. Same shit as always though.” He replies to Jeonghan. Sometimes Jun likes to think he, Seungcheol, Jisoo and Jeonghan are the only sane ones in this insane group of friends. That is, unless Seungcheol chooses to get caught up in the mess. Jihoon may seem cold and calm but don’t let his appearance confuse you. He once hid in between the bleachers in the gym and convinced Seungkwan that he was a ghost coming to take him.

Jun walks closer to see Wonwoo holding a box. Inside, unsurprisingly, is his pet snake. Soonyoung is dead terrified of it, and this just further encourages Wonwoo to carry it around with him.

“Come on, Wonwoo.” Jun takes the box and puts the lid on it. “Get down, Soonyoung.” He hands the box to Mingyu, Wonwoo’s respective soulmate, and hopes he’ll keep it safe.

Some of his friends are disappointed by his actions. The other 4 are relieved. Chan shakes his head, probably wondering why he became friends with these idiots. Minghao gives him a look across the group and mouths a “Thank you”. He nods and smiles in return. Minghao. Probably his favourite out of all his friends. He only joined the group recently, but from what Jun has experienced he’s really funny and takes good pictures of their friends. He’s quiet and nice, and Jun respects that.

Jun waves goodbye to his friends so he can get to class. Chan decides to tag along, probably wanting to escape the insanity of their group.

“How do you control them like that?” Chan asks. Jun shrugs.

“I dunno. There’s many mysteries to that group, and them listening to me more than Jeonghan is one of them.” 

“Maybe it’s because you aren’t soft on them like he is. The only person I’ve never seen you yell at for doing stupid things is Minghao. I used to think it was because he was new, but he isn’t so new anymore. Maybe you’re only soft for him.”

“Oh, shut up. I’ve never really even talked to him.” Chan smirks, turning off to his class.

“Maybe you like him.” Jun freezes and turns to his young friend with a scowl plastered on his face.

“Chan, I’m giving you 3 seconds to run before I hurt you.” Chan knows by now that that’s a true threat, so he takes his 3 seconds and sprints off. Jun chuckles, sighing as he continues walking. Chan’s full of it.

-

Jun stops right after he exits the school at lunch. Minghao has snapped a photo of him on that big camera of his that he carries around every breathing moment. That is, unless he’s around Soonyoung and Hansol. Maybe it’s best that they don’t touch it.

“That’s kind of creepy, you know.” Jun says as Minghao smiles. Then he freezes.

“I take pictures of all my friends. It’s not... creepy.” Minghao had frozen as well. They stare at each other, then at the same time down at their wrists. Their eyes meet once again, both wearing the look of confusion.

“This...” Jun continues to stare back down at his wrist, then back up at the younger boy, “This cannot be right.” Minghao stays silent, looking at his feet, cheeks red with embarrassment. 

Jun shakes his head. He grabs Minghao’s wrist to see the boys print. As he heard, “I take pictures of all my friends.”

“Have-“ He let’s his friend’s (are they really friends?) wrist drop. “Have we really never spoken directly to each other?” 

“I guess we haven’t. Thinking back, I-I think there was no real need for it. We would just look at each other.”

“Are we really friends, then?” Jun asks. Minghao looks up at him suddenly.

“You... You don’t think we’re friends?” 

“I mean, we’ve never talked before now. I know next to nothing about you. If I’m being honest here, I don’t even remember when you joined our group of friends, and how you even did it.” 

“Jun, why are acting like this? Why are you being such a asshole?” Minghao grips his camera, unsure if he should calm the older or just leave him.

“If I didn’t let you believe we were friends, you wouldn’t have taken that picture and I wouldn’t have found out that you were my soulmate!” He snaps, wanting to reach for the camera and smash it.

“What’s wrong with me being your soulmate?” Minghao asks in defense. He’s getting really hurt now, and wants to run and find one of his nicer friends.

 

“You’re- you’re a boy! I’m not gay! I don’t see how you’re supposed to be my soulmate when you’re just that weird boy that takes pictures.” Jun rubs his temples, turning away from Minghao for a moment. And that’s when Minghao walks off. 

-

It starts as an angry walk and turns into a full out sprint. He needs his friends. Where are they? Jun isn’t his friend. He shouldn’t have taken that picture.

He stumbles upon Jeonghan and Seungcheol who are sitting against lockers in a nearby hall. 

“Minghao, what the hell? Why are you running?” Seungcheol asks. Jeonghan is the first to notice his hurt expression.

“What happened?” Jeonghan stands up, approaching his friend and touching his shoulder. Minghao has tears slowly trailing down his cheeks. 

“I-I know who my soulmate is.” He stutters out, fingers gripping his hoodie tightly. He never wants to lay eyes on the words on his wrist again.

“What? Who is it? What did he say to you?” Seungcheol follows Jeonghan, standing across from Minghao.

“It’s Jun. He- he hates me.” The pair’s eyes widen, then meet each others.

“Jun? Our Junhui?” Jeonghan asks. Minghao nods, trying to cover his face with his hands. Seungcheol mutters a few words to Jeonghan that are inaudible to him.

“Hey, take deep breaths and calm down. You need to tell us what happened.” Jeonghan pulls his hands away. So he does. He tells his friends what happened between him and Jun, trying not to cry again. He’s tired of crying. It makes him feel even weaker than he already is.

“That bastard,” Seungcheol says. He stands up and begins to walk off. 

“Where are you going?” Jeonghan calls after him. Jihoon suddenly comes into the hall and bumps into his boyfriend.

“Seungcheol, what the fuck?”

“Oh, hey. I’ll be back, just going to go kill Jun.” Seungcheol presses a kiss to the top of Jihoon’s head and continues on his search.

“What did Jun do?” Jihoon asks after Seungcheol disappears. Jeonghan looks at Minghao, knowing that his friend shouldn’t continue to talk about this.

“I’ll talk to everyone about it later.” Minghao nods, thanking Jeonghan silently. Jihoon sits down next to them, understanding without needing an explanation.

-

Jun is trying to comprehend what had happened when Seungcheol shoved him so hard he almost fell backwards.

“Hey! What’s your deal?” Jun asks angrily at his friend. 

“You need to explain yourself. What the hell is wrong with you? What makes you think you can treat Minghao like that?”

“What, did he run off and cry to you?” Jun replies coldly, shaking his head and beginning to walk away from Seungcheol.

“Hey! Why are you being such an asshole?”

“How would you feel? How would you react if he was your soulmate?”

“What’s wrong with Minghao as your soulmate?”

"I-I" He plants his feet and stares Seungcheol dead in the eyes. "I am not gay. I am not about to fall in love with a boy." Seungcheol stares back at him, struggling to find what to say.

"Fine." He states eventually, "But you are going to apologize to him for being such a dick. No one is forcing you two to get together, so just try to make nice. You fucked up, man. I'm sorry that someone as great as Minghao hates you." Jun's heart drops. Were his words really that hurtful? Of course they were. He was just angry. He didn't mean it. Not at all.

"Seungcheol..." He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry."

"It's not me you should be apologizing to." Seungcheol mutters, walking away. Jun watches him go, wanting to follow and find Minghao. Man, he fucked up.

-

Minghao lay in his bed the following night. He was going through his pictures from the past week, wondering which to keep and which to delete. 

There were the usual awful selfies Seungkwan and Seokmin attempt. Some turn out fine, and some are absolutely disgusting. He keeps those, the nice ones but also the bad ones for blackmail. He’ll delete the average looking ones.

He scrolled through some of the gross couple-y ones he takes of his friends throughout the day. Jeonghan and Jisoo laughing together, Seungcheol and Jihoon holding hands in the hallway (rare), Hansol and Seungkwan found kissing under the bleachers, Mingyu and Wonwoo playfully hitting each other. His eyes linger on the one of Hansol and Seungkwan, wondering what it’s like to love and be able to kiss someone. He’s been waiting for his soulmate. He didn’t want to be like those who find then when they’re 80 at a retirement home. But he found him, only to be rejected. He’d never heard of someone rejecting their soulmate. They’re supposed to be perfect for each other. Why is Jun shying away from it?

He swipes onto the picture he took of Jun the day they’d discovered it. It was pretty, the sunlight shining off his face. He looked happy to be out of class.

Minghao’s thumb lay over the erase button. He can feel it, yet he can’t press it.

So he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to give up on them yet. Maybe, maybe he’ll change his mind.

-

Jun couldn’t find Minghao alone till the week after. He would always be with Hansol or Mingyu, and whenever he saw him coming he’d take his friends and they’d go somewhere else.

Some of the group had forgiven Jun. Jeonghan, Seungcheol and Jihoon were still quite angry with him because they’d seen Minghao’s firsthand emotions. The rest of the group seemed skeptical of him but didn’t exclude him unless they were with Minghao. 

Jun finally saw him alone when he was sitting on a bench after school with Soonyoung and Seokmin. He instantly stood and up ran to him, taking him by the shoulders so he couldn’t run away.

“Hey- Jun. Dude, just leave me alone.” He said as he tried to walk away, but Jun’s grip held him in place.

“No. Minghao, I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? For what? My public humiliation or for destroying my self esteem?” Jun’s stomach drops at his comment. He lets his hands drop from Minghao’s shoulders.

“For everything. I’m such an asshole. You’re the greatest guy I know and I treated you like you didn’t even matter to me. But you do. I’m sorry we were never really friends, but I want to change that.” Minghao stares at him. He doesn’t look happy. Or angry. He just stares at Jun until he lifts his camera and takes a picture. Jun steps back in confusion. 

“Okay.” Minghao finally says bluntly. He turns around and walks away, looking at the picture he just took. And deletes it.

-

He wants to be friends. Minghao doesn’t. Minghao wants to love him.

His heart aches as he walks off. It’s time to work on getting over him.

-

Jun steps off the bus. First day of his last year. Some of his friends had graduated, making him one of the oldest out of their group. They’d seen each other over break, some more than others. One hadn’t been around at all. Minghao had gone back to China to visit family, and was gone all break, so Jun wasn’t able to talk to him at all, or work on making amends.

He approached his friends who were in their usual spot by the gate. They were down 3 people, but all else were there. He counted, just to be sure. Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan. But where’s Minghao? Why is Jun suddenly concerned that the boy isn’t there?

"Jun! He's here!" Seokmin calls. "The group is now complete!" Everyone cheers, but Jun still can't see Minghao. Until Finally, his eyes spot the thin frame of the other Chinese boy. Bu the isn't the same as he was before. He's taller, leaner, and a little bigger than he was a few months ago. His hair is now dark brown instead of the cotton candy mess it was before. He looks almost intimidating. And..

Hot. 

No. No no no no no. That was not a thought that just went through Jun's mind. Nope.

Later, when Jun is alone with his thoughts during class, he goes over the mess that is currently swarming through his head. He fucked up with Minghao, and now he wants to be with him. Wow, that sounds so strange but feels so right.

Well, now what? Why are all of these feelings appearing so suddenly? Where were they when he had first discovered that they were soulmates?

After that class, he tries to find him. He’s dashing around a corner when he bumps into him. He gets worried about the camera he’s crushed, when he realizes it isn’t there.

“Oh, hey.” Minghao says, trying to push past him.

“Where’s you camera?” Jun asks out of curiosity. Minghao had grown and they are almost the same height.

“In my bag,” Minghao says bluntly, trying to leave the conversation. Jun stops him, grabbing the younger’s arm and dragging him into an empty classroom.

"Look," He starts, looking into Minghao's eyes. God, they're pretty. "I don't know what's suddenly come over me. But, I want to try it."

"Try what?" Minghao asks.

"Us. Soulmates. I said a lot of fucked up things to you, and I didn't mean any of it," 

"Jun, just stop-"

"I was scared of loving someone as good as you, and being different than others-"

"Please, Jun, stop-"

"I want to love you. I want to try and be with you,"

"Jun, just shut UP!" Minghao shouts at the elder, shoving him away. Jun stares at him in utter shock.

"Wha-What?" 

"I'm over it. And now I'm over you. Having you suddenly turn back like that is embarrassing. I pity your desperation. What, no girl would go out with you so you crawl back over to me? The person who is supposed to be perfect for you from the get go? I'm tired of your shit, Junhui." Minghao turns sharply and storms out of the classroom. Jun watches him in shock as the boy goes, wondering what the hell he's gonna do next.

This isn't the same Minghao he knew before. He's stronger an knows how to stand up for himself. Jun admires the new qualities of his. And he knows his feelings are only getting stronger.

-

His heart aches as he stomps away. He leaves Jun behind him, knowing his eyes are following him as he goes. He thought being away from him would take away these feelings, but it didn’t. Instead, Jun has them as well and Minghao wants nothing more than to never see his perfect face again.

Damn it. Maybe it’s the whole “soulmates” thing. They have to be together. Maybe it isn’t just a suggestion, but a push in the right direction.

His phone buzzes in his pocket. Minghao knows who has texted him, but he can’t ignore it. 

‘I’m sorry. I can’t put into words how sorry I am.’

Minghao stares at the text blankly. He can’t give in like this. He can’t fall in love with Junhui.

Friends. Friends sounds good.

Does it?

-

Jun doesn’t persist again until a week later. He pushes Minghao into the same empty classroom and takes his hands in his.

“I’m sorry.” Is the first thing he says this time. Minghao rips his hands away and turns around. 

“Jun, please. After the way you treated me I feel like I can’t forgive you. What if you do it again? You seem nice, but once you’re shaken up you’re a huge asshat!” Jun looks at him pleadingly. 

“I told my parents.”

“You what?”

“The night I confessed to you. I told them about my soulmate. About how he’s a boy. About how I’m going to fall in love with him. It was the most terrifying moment of my life. They aren’t the kind of people to accept change. That’s why I was such a dick to you. I was too scared to accept that I could love another boy. I didn’t want to be different. But I know now, that I want to be with you.” Minghao is taken aback by the others burst of words and emotion. He’s at a loss for words. Jun looks at him expectantly.

“You don’t have to-“ Jun starts, but Minghao shuts him up by cupping Jun’s face and bringing it close to his. The space is minimal, and they can feel each other’s breath on their lips. Jun is breathing heavily, and Minghao is trying hard to keep his cool.

“You talk too much.” Minghao whispers.

“You don’t talk enough.” Jun replies. “I know nothing about you.” 

“I’m just that weird boy that takes pictures. What about you?”

“Right now? All I want to do is kiss you.” 

“Okay.” And so they do. Jun quickly closes the space between them, the tension breaking and for once there is a good aura around them. No hatred, no sadness. Something different.

This felt right. Minghao finally felt like the empty space in his chest was full. He moved his hands from Jun’s face down to his neck and the back of his head. Jun rested his hands on Minghao’s hips, pulling him closer as they leaned against a desk. Minghao has never had someone so close to him before. It feels good. It feels so good.

The moment is over when Minghao hears the sharp whispers behind them. Breaking away from Jun, he whips his head around to see 8 people staring directly into the room. Once they see they’ve been spotted, they all disperse from the window.

“I think our friends were there the whole time.” Minghao sighs, moving slightly away from the other. Jun rests a hand on his forehead and chuckles.

“Well, at least we won’t have to introduce our relationship to them.” He says.

“So, this is going to really be a thing?” Minghao asks.

“Unless you don’t want it to be.” Minghao shakes his head and pecks Jun’s lips.

“Of course I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi! thanks for reading! if you have any questions or just want to hmu  
> twt: @rudeha_o  
> ig: @rudehao


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